Re: [rtcweb] Interoperability between browsers (MTI Video)

Enrico Marocco <enrico.marocco@telecomitalia.it> Sat, 16 March 2013 20:41 UTC

Return-Path: <enrico.marocco@telecomitalia.it>
X-Original-To: rtcweb@ietfa.amsl.com
Delivered-To: rtcweb@ietfa.amsl.com
Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by ietfa.amsl.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 03E4C21F8675 for <rtcweb@ietfa.amsl.com>; Sat, 16 Mar 2013 13:41:15 -0700 (PDT)
X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at amsl.com
X-Spam-Flag: NO
X-Spam-Score: -101.719
X-Spam-Level:
X-Spam-Status: No, score=-101.719 tagged_above=-999 required=5 tests=[BAYES_00=-2.599, HELO_EQ_IT=0.635, HOST_EQ_IT=1.245, RCVD_IN_DNSWL_LOW=-1, USER_IN_WHITELIST=-100]
Received: from mail.ietf.org ([12.22.58.30]) by localhost (ietfa.amsl.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id TGN4YllcEPxJ for <rtcweb@ietfa.amsl.com>; Sat, 16 Mar 2013 13:41:14 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from GRFEDG702RM001.telecomitalia.it (grfedg702rm001.telecomitalia.it [217.169.121.21]) by ietfa.amsl.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0C0CD21F8623 for <rtcweb@ietf.org>; Sat, 16 Mar 2013 13:41:14 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from grfhub702rm001.griffon.local (10.19.3.9) by GRFEDG702RM001.telecomitalia.it (10.173.88.21) with Microsoft SMTP Server (TLS) id 8.3.297.1; Sat, 16 Mar 2013 21:41:04 +0100
Received: from airlab.local (163.162.180.246) by smtp.telecomitalia.it (10.19.9.235) with Microsoft SMTP Server (TLS) id 8.3.297.1; Sat, 16 Mar 2013 21:41:02 +0100
Message-ID: <5144D8D7.5080401@telecomitalia.it>
Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2013 16:40:55 -0400
From: Enrico Marocco <enrico.marocco@telecomitalia.it>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.8; rv:17.0) Gecko/20130307 Thunderbird/17.0.4
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Hadriel Kaplan <HKaplan@acmepacket.com>
References: <CAGgHUiQPNSOEtffncjXMozxPM70hL9N++sM=RkC6qVFGSFNREA@mail.gmail.com> <05D1DDF1-A153-41F2-9726-351AA22075C4@acmepacket.com>
In-Reply-To: <05D1DDF1-A153-41F2-9726-351AA22075C4@acmepacket.com>
Content-Type: multipart/signed; protocol="application/pkcs7-signature"; micalg="sha1"; boundary="------------ms030100060901070000090005"
X-TI-Disclaimer: Disclaimer1
Cc: rtcweb@ietf.org
Subject: Re: [rtcweb] Interoperability between browsers (MTI Video)
X-BeenThere: rtcweb@ietf.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.12
Precedence: list
List-Id: Real-Time Communication in WEB-browsers working group list <rtcweb.ietf.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <https://www.ietf.org/mailman/options/rtcweb>, <mailto:rtcweb-request@ietf.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/rtcweb>
List-Post: <mailto:rtcweb@ietf.org>
List-Help: <mailto:rtcweb-request@ietf.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/rtcweb>, <mailto:rtcweb-request@ietf.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 16 Mar 2013 20:41:15 -0000

On 3/16/13 4:08 PM, Hadriel Kaplan wrote:
>> --Decide on H.261: This might be old tech, but browsers might be
>> able to use H.261 without paying any royalties and without
>> transcoding. The codec can be used at 352x288 resolution from
>> 64Kbit/s to 2Mbit/s Remember this is just a fallback for
>> interoperability. Browsers will still implement VP8 and/or H.264.
>> ... Atleast there is video instead of no Video. Any opinions?
>
> I agree this would be better than nothing, as mentioned on the thread
> titled "Video Codec MTI & User Experience == 1". I also asked a few
> vendors after this week's meetings whether their existing devices
> support H.261, but they didn't know.  If most existing video devices
> do, then having H.261 as the MTI would also facilitate interop with
> legacy equipment.  I.e., it would follow the same rationale for why
> we chose G.711 as one of the MTI audio codecs.

Not only that. It would also foster competition and innovation. Crappy 
quality when negotiation falls back on H.261 will be a big incentive for 
the communicating parties to switch to a common browser. In the end the 
fluctuations in browser market share will take care themselves to set 
the de-facto standard.

At this point crappy quality may be a feature rather than a bug..

Enrico